Last week a couple of people got in touch with us to complain about what they called ‘the stench’ that has been afflicting those in and around Ryde Esplanade for the last few weeks.
One reader, the owner of a local business, took it upon herself to contact the council last week to find out what could be done and was met with a rather unusual response.
We’ve been in touch with the Council today to ask what they’re planning to do to resolve the problems and will report back once we hear more. Ed
A Ryde business owner tells us …. We have been experiencing a dreadful pong from the rotting seaweed for the last few weeks here on Ryde Esplanade. We’ve lived just off the Esplanade for five years and have never known it so bad.
Naively believing that somebody would do something about it, it wasn’t until Friday at the beginning of the Bank Holiday Weekend – with 5,000 American troops in Portsmouth and countless holiday-makers set to be arriving at “the gateway to the Island”, I thought I would give our local council a call!
Someone will call you back
I called at 9am and was told they were aware of it and a gent would call me back at 10.30am when he started work.
By 11.30am, breathing in the rot with every inhalation, I called again. The lady on the switchboard assured me whilst she was deciding who to connect me to, that last weekend she’d had the misfortune of parking her car in St Thomas Street Lower Car Park ready to embark on a Walking Festival walk, had opened her window and could not believe how disgusting the smell was! Well that was a week ago!
She eventually transferred me to a very tired and bored man from Parks, Beaches, etc who, in my view, could not have cared less or been more apathetic if he’d tried.
To begin with, he confirmed they were “keeping an eye on it” but that it was not really an ‘issue’.
Budget cuts
He proceeded to relentlessly drone on about budgets, that because they had not spent their rotten-seaweed budget last year, or in years before, this year it had been cut, that they only had a small amount this year and that it had to be saved in case there is a smellier situation on the hot summer months.
I asked if they had a contingency fund for such unpredicted occurrences but apparently not.
Isn’t it covered by business rates or council tax?
At this point, I questioned what our business rates / council tax were for if not for something like this. He proceeded to rant that everybody on the Island has to pay rates, but not everybody should have to pay for seaweed clearance on the Esplanade.
He instructed me to contact my local MP or Ryde Town Council, who he believed may have some funds for stinky seaweed.
Your fault as voters
This was followed by a rant that it is actually our fault as voters that we are in such difficulty by voting in the current powers that be.
I told him that as a user, that is not what I am asking him and so I do not need him to explain to me the ridiculousness of our council system again.
Is it acceptable to have to breath in rancid air?
As both a resident of the Esplanade and a business owner, with two very young children, I asked whether he thought it was acceptable that whenever we are outside or a door or window is open, all we are breathing is rancid air.
He said if we were made “physically sick” by the smell we could call the environment agency. I had not at any point said that we were physically sick, but did then ask if it was environment health that I needed to speak to. He told me, “yes, of course” and he didn’t understand why I had called him anyway.
I explained that I was a council user and I had merely rung the switchboard and had been put through to him.
Responsibility does not include seaweed
He then told me that his department were only responsible for keeping the beaches, parks, etc clean and that it didn’t include seaweed clearance – in fact he told me, some people believe that seaweed should not be cleared at all – and that it was nothing to do with him.
Has it been reported by beach cleaners?
I asked if any of his colleagues that cleaned the beaches / parks on the Esplanade had reported the smell and he replied that it was just contractors that did the cleaning and that yes they had reported the foul smell.
Having confirmed that council employees and / or council contractors (including the switchboard lady) had reported the foul smell themselves, I queried why it was not deemed an issue.
I asked if anybody else had reported it and he said “just a few”.
Keeping an eye on the situation
I asked about the Environmental Health aspect and he told me that they are also keeping an eye on the situation, but would only be concerned with Water Quality.
I asked if anybody had used a smell-o-meter or equivalent, but he confirmed it was not his department.
I asked him to transfer me and he told me they would just refer me back to him, as they had done already that day with another caller.
I congratulated him on his loyalty to his environmental health colleagues and that they clearly worked together really well! I also asked him if he was bored of his job, he replied he was not. I thanked him for all of his help and finished the call.
Disgusted at lack of action
I am disgusted that in a period of economic recession, when visitor numbers are falling, that our council does not deem it totally unacceptable that the gateway to the Island should be shrouded in such a disgusting smell (akin to raw sewage) for so long. Not to mention for us residents.
As a business owner, we are working had to stop the smell infiltrating the premises, by keeping the doors closed, especially when the weather has been warm.
We have lost business from this environmental disgrace and I challenge anybody to come here and breathe it, to disagree that this rotting seaweed should be cleared as a matter of urgency.
Obviously this is all too late for the poor bank holiday-makers!
